How To Disable Xbox Game Bar In Windows 10 To Counter Drops In FPS

I’ve run across this odd problem on Windows 10 where if you leave the operating system’s built-in Xbox Game Bar and DVR functionality on, certain games tend to start dropping frames, feeling sluggish as a result. The issue has been reported by several users over online forums and even received a mention within certain games (such as Valve’s Dota 2) as a possible cause for drops in performance.

If you’ve been experiencing unexplained frame rate hiccups within games that used to run smoothly on your Windows system before, there’s a chance this feature is to blame. It’s possible it interferes with other in-game services such as those offered by the Steam overlay or Nvidia’s GeForce Experience or maybe it’s just that it doesn’t play well with certain games. It’s still a young feature, after all, and is likely to take some more time getting the lay of the land.

Fortunately, there’s a way to disable Xbox Game Bar and Game DVR altogether, and we’re going to show you exactly how to do that.

How To Disable Xbox Game Bar

1. Open up the Start menu and select Settings from the left.

2. From the Settings window, select Gaming.

3. With the Xbox Game Bar section selected on the left, set the toggle at the right to Off.

This will disable Xbox Game Bar, preventing the feature from activating when you next launch a fullscreen application or game. It’s important to note, though, that framerate drops can be caused by a myriad of things or a combination of unrelated problems. If you’re experiencing crippling performance issues within a particular game, Game Bar likely isn’t the only cause, though it might improve the average framerate by a few points.

If this quick and easy solution does end up helping you, do let us know in the comments section below.

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Sameed Khan

I write, game, design at times, and revel in sarcasm. You can find me on Twitter.